Feeding for Health and Performance

Feeding for Health and Performance

Horses have evolved to browse and graze, are well suited to high-fibre, low-starch diets and spend 16-18 hours per day grazing (Frape 2004, Harris 2005, Henderson 2007, Hill 2007 & Benhajali et al. 2009). Wild horses rarely fast for more than a couple of hours at a time (Harris 2005). The dietary management of domestic horses is often far removed from that of their wild counterparts. If we consider how we typically manage the domesticated horse, they are often stabled for many hours of the day and fed meals of concentrated energy sources such as cereal grains, which are high in starch. Enabling prolonged foraging in domestic horses not only provides digestive benefits, it also provides stimulation and activity (Hothersall and Nicol, 2009) and this is important to promote good welfare. The domestic horse’s wild counterparts would spend a great deal of time searching for and consuming food. In contrast, domestic horses often have limited opportunities to forage and it can be the case that the fibre component of the diet is also restricted. Consequently, this can impact on gastrointestinal health. […]